"In between dispensing advice on breast-feeding and immunizations, doctors will tell parents to read aloud to their infants from birth, under a new policy that the American Academy of Pediatrics will announce on Tuesday.

With the increased recognition that an important part of brain development occurs within the first three years of a child’s life, and that reading to children enhances vocabulary and other important communication skills, the group, which represents 62,000 pediatricians across the country, is asking its members to become powerful advocates for reading aloud, every time a baby visits the doctor."

I read to my daughters from birth, as I'm guessing many of us did, and my older--then still pre-verbal--daughter loved, loved, LOVED books that rhymed and would sometimes express irritation with books that didn't. Now in her 20's she reads as much as I do, and no longer has that rhyming stipulation.

We kept up the reading aloud even as they got older, going through almost all the Harry Potter books together. Sometimes it went on late into the night and I had to insist against their protests that we put Harry and friends away so they could go to sleep. I would then take the book into my room and keep reading. Of course.

Dr. Leora Mogilner, a pediatrician at Mount Sinai Hospital, gave a book to Kaylee Smith, 9 months, and guidance to her mother, Tameka Griffiths, 33.Credit Ruth Fremson/The New York Times